


Enough Space

by shinesurge



Category: Kidd Commander (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, starships are weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 15:05:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15687867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinesurge/pseuds/shinesurge
Summary: Immediately post Mile High Engage. Phineas made a mistake while building Lucky Noon, maybe.





	Enough Space

**Author's Note:**

> This one's actually Very Canon, and Ulrich references it [here.](http://kiddcommander.com/?comic=awa-page-97)

Neither of them were sure what to do with themselves once they were in the air.

Ulrich had been entertaining thoughts of a real shower for days, eager to lose the sweaty grit and dust that had layered over him since he arrived in the miserable desert town some interminable amount of time ago. But that would require washing clothes, if they could even DO that here. He didn't have any soap, could you just...ask? Would it materialize like the furniture that had already been here when they walked in? Phineas hadn't mentioned bathing but he assumed she was starving by now, seeing as he had come dangerously close to crying over Rook's finger food earlier. Phineas had gone oddly quiet once they were alone, though. They fell onto a couch that somehow already seemed worn in and nobody committed to anything.

He turned to look at Phineas and found her dozing. Her feet in his lap was an inexcusable sin almost any other time but he had resigned himself to the dirt at this point. Noon said they could handle steering for long stretches between settlements so the (needy little) humans could recuperate from their adventures, and Ulrich decided laying back against the couch and resting his eyes for five minutes couldn't hurt.

Around an hour later he tapped Phineas' shin and she stirred a little.

"Get up, if we are going to sleep we should find bedrooms." she yawned and nodded.

"Up the stairs," she mumbled, eyes still shut.

"Did you check them out already?"

"No, that's just where I'd put them... so..." she settled further down against the arm of the couch, reaching to scratch absently at the shiny scar she'd brought back from her encounter with Hazard. Ulrich huffed and shoved her feet off of him.

"YOU can sleep here if you want, I'm finding a bed." She grumbled but stood up, instinctively moved in front of him to lead up the stairs.

* * *

The upper floor had two doors, one on either end of an awkwardly long and empty hallway. Awkward and empty seemed to be the motif; while the excitement of the new ship wasn't necessarily diminished, the place had the echoey feel of a new home that hadn't been furnished yet. Ulrich opened the door nearer the stairs, expecting perhaps a basic dormitory setup; possibly just a cot. Instead, he found a comfortably sized bathroom. Phineas seemed just as surprised as he was.

There was only one bedroom.

"I don't understand," Ulrich said, exhaustion ebbing frustration into his tone, staring through the doorway at their sleeping quarters. There was an area for each of them, unmistakably, and even a sunken table built to seat several people comfortably in front of a television screen. It was a cozy setup, but,

"Wouldn't this ship be built _specifically_ for two people?" he asked, not exactly irritated but clearly confused. "There is empty space in the hallway for more rooms and everything."

Phineas, who had appeared equally confused when they first discovered the error, was suddenly just a bit too pink and stubbornly avoiding eye contact.

"What is it?" Ulrich pressed, still not quite making the leap to annoyed with her.

"I-I didn't mean to," Phineas began, walking inside the room to get some distance between them. Ulrich stayed in the doorway, his feet on the other side of the threshold.

"I think I..." she turned to face him, hands in her pockets, looking like she was trying to physically shrug off her self-consciousness. She chickened out and looked at the floor. "I've been on my own for a while, and even before that I never really...I think I must have just thought it would be less lonesome. Like this. I don't know."

Ulrich had only seen her squirm like this in the elevator, when he asked about her mentor. In spite of his curiosity he had cut off his questions then mostly due to a lack of time and practicality; something like this could easily wind out into a long and possibly uncomfortable discussion. Possibly something besides discomfort would come of it, too, something he could not take back and could not afford to carry, which made this a much more complicated decision. Somewhere in him he suspected he already knew the outcome of a conversation like that with Phineas, for reasons he violently refused to explore.

Bel pricked at the back of his neck, was a hand on his shoulder pushing him to act. He shrugged with practiced amiability.

"I've slept in much less comfortable quarters. This is alright."

"We can always change it later, if it's a problem." Phineas offered, trying to sound helpful.

"Of course."

* * *

It turned out one COULD just ask for things, like bath soap and a clean towel that poofed into being a few inches above Ulrich's bed at Phineas' request, and while this was convenient he felt intensely awkward as he undressed in the upstairs bathroom. Was Noon just _watching_ all the time? Ulrich felt stupid for being so worked up over whether or not an alien entity would care about seeing him naked, but the shower was beyond worth the extra heartache. No voice bothered him while he wrung out his hair and changed into his least-filthy shirt and boxers. He supposed the threat of observation was something he'd have to learn to live with.

He gathered his damp hair into an elastic, caught himself and let it loose instead. He got as far as collecting his things to leave before he paused, staring at his own face in the foggy mirror. He slowly tucked a lock behind his left ear, the ragged edge bright pink and warmed by the shower. Ulrich looked for a long moment, then pulled the rubber band around his hair again. Living in such close proximity would be difficult enough already without having to hide physical aspects of himself, too. Phineas had unceremoniously started undressing for bed before he even left the room a few minutes earlier, which was (he smiled, very slightly) yet another discussion regarding personal space they would have to have when they were more rested, though at the moment her impertinence was a blessing that made him feel more at ease with his own. All these adjustments would be easier the earlier he started them.

And, he mused, Phineas was marked in more ways than one. He'd be hard pressed to find an easier pair of eyes to get used to. He turned out the light, the air outside the door chilly over his scars.

He wandered down the hall, the sound of his bare feet reaffirming the emptiness of the ship. By the time he peeked in their bedroom the lights were out, fading sunshine through the window showing his bed and the faint outline of Phineas asleep in her box hammock.

Ulrich peered out the round window over his bed. The desert stretched on and on; a visceral, threatening red under an empty purple sky, a hue between any sort of star, Last Chance's enormous radio tower a speck retreating into the horizon. He realized he didn't know in which direction the ship was headed, and the full understanding that maybe he wouldn't have a say in that direction anyway finally began to creep into his periphery after two days at arms' length. He settled back into the pillows wearily, feeling very small and very aware of the universe tangling tight around him. Like many nights he dreamt of hands, reaching and taking. He saw, before it covered his eyes, one tattooed palm.

 


End file.
